I stepped into my studio last evening just in time to see this scamp darting across the floor with my favorite sable watercolor brush! When I told Chris about him, I called the little guy a gremlin. This led to a discussion about what makes a gremlins vs. mischievous faeries vs. hobgoblins vs. evil elves. I was perhaps calling him by the wrong name as I do believe he is more of a mischief maker than an gremlin. Besides, he wasn't green and I didn't see any warts.

Interestingly, Chris informed me he didn't have any of these mysterious creatures in his studio. He seem to think they were all mine and visited his studio when they became bored waiting for me to discover something missing. He also said if they were anything like him, they'd forget where they put stuff so he hoped they didn't take anything too important!

I regretfully informed him that as far as I knew faeries had no territorial boundaries, came and went as they pleased, and were not assigned nor attached to particular humans. It had far more to do with who they liked—or didn't. Fortunately for me, this guy dropped the brush as he rounded the trash bin and disappeared from sight. He didn't seem particularly scared of me. He just knew the game was up. This time.

On a more serious note (if you've made it this far), this was painted in the new watercolor journal from Hobby Lobby. So far I've learned that it does not take to repeated erasing very well. It tends to mar the paper rather easily. The journal also has a textured page and a less textured page. As long as you know this you can either plan ahead if you want to do a two page spread, or make your mind up it's not going to bother you if you want to stay in date order.

The only thing I can say so far is that when these are gone, I won't be making another trip to replace them. I still prefer them to Moleskines, but I really think I'd rather just make my own and be done with it. So close.....but then, that's probably what Mr. Brush Snatcher thought too!

If you've read the blog very long, you've heard me fuss about the Moleskine watercolor journals and the fact that I just really don't care for them. They're simply not my thing. However, it's nice to have a small compact journal like that to cart around when I'm out and about.

So when I read about Bonnie's find over on Flickr, I had to "see" for myself. She had found a watercolor journal at Hobby Lobby called The Art of Watercolor Journal. Anyway, nothing doing but I needed to lay my hands on one. As it turned out, when Chris and I went to the antique market last week, we took a 50 mile detour to Hobby Lobby, and purchased the journal!

I'm not sure what "handy crafted" is suppose to be and it doesn't say what kind of paper is inside, only that it is acid-free. I decided to go ahead with the purchase anyway. It is made very similar to the Moleskine's except with a rubberized cover. I suppose it's meant to be leather-like. Then again, maybe not.

What would determine the journal to be a keeper would be how the paper handled paint. Even though I have several other journals "on-the-go," I didn't hesitate to rip that wrapper off and get started painting inside.
I have to say that I have been pleased so far. I started with the first page of watercolor paper and painted a generic design as I always seem to have trouble making up my mind what should go on the first and last pages. I decided to paint a design similar to what you would see on a decorative end sheet. The paper curled a bit but not horribly. The paper handles paint much, much better than the Moleskine. That's a huge plus right there (for me). The paint did not drag or resist the paper.

Things were slightly different when I painted the back page though. The paint seemed to resist the sizing but only in certain places. Looking at the page on an angle, I could not see any glue or abnormal shine to the page, but there was definitely an inconsistency to the page. It took a couple of extra swipes with the brush to get the paint to adhere.
Until I painted that back page, I thought I'd found a new journal worth recommending to you. I'll have to do a few more pages before I can give it a thumbs up. Another plus in its favor is that the small size (3.75 x 5.5 inches) is only $7.00 and Hobby Lobby offers a 40% off coupon. Not a bad deal. If the pages are not funky. Stay tuned.......

Wow, did that week blow through here or what? I can't believe it's Friday! I guess that's what happens when I launch a new class, work on a competition painting, and have a holiday all in the same week! Speaking of holidays, Memorial Day is the day of a huge outdoor antique/flea market about 60 miles north of where I live.


We've been going for years. We've honed the process of getting ready and getting out the door down to a science. You see, we get up at 4:45 AM and we're usually on the road by 5:30. A lot of people mistake that for diehard antique enthusiasts. We're not. Mostly we go to look and satisfy a curiosity about how our ancestors lived a 100 years ago.

No, we get up with the chickens because a) this is Florida and it's h.o.t. by 9 AM in the morning and b) it gets crowded. Very crowded. So imagine that it's 95º in the shade (except there is no shade) and you're spending the morning with a 1000 of your closest, hot, sweaty, grumpy, grouchy, argumentative, new best friends......you'd get up at 4:45 too!!

We always look for a "treasure" when we go. A treasure is a special find and money has little to do with it. It has more to do with the value it has to the person seeking/finding the treasure. Again, imagine finding something you've been looking for for years, maybe it's a deal or a steal or maybe it's just that you've finally, after all this time, after you'd nearly given up, that you found the item—that's a treasure!

It is uncommon to find a free treasure at an antique market, but that's exactly what happened on Monday. I was standing by a table with an array of military memorabilia waiting for Chris when I glanced down and something twinkling caught my eye. At first I thought it was a play of light off from an item in the cases, but that didn't feel right, so I stepped closer to take another look.....

And found a ladybug carcass! Now, remember, I said the treasure was valuable to the person who found it.....

To say I was surprised is an understatement. I mean, here I am in a sea of 50 acres of antiques and I find a ladybug. A dead ladybug. And I'm thrilled. Of course, I had no way to safely store it so I carefully cupped it in the palm of my hand and carried it back to the truck. I nestled it down on the lid of my coffee cup where I knew it would be safe until we reached home.

It was not until I went to sketch it in my Moleskine that I noticed the word "sweetheart"......
 

I worked on this zen-word, off and on, for a couple of weeks nearly 2 years ago when grief was tugging me down. At the time, it seemed that my "wings" were too weak to lift me up. Whenever I found inspiration somewhere out on the net I let it lift me up. Sometimes, in order to SOAR, we have need to lean on others' inspiration.

I started to "colorize" it when I rediscovered it this past week and then decided to post it untouched as a free download to anyone who would like to have it! It's my way of paying back (and forward) for all the wonderful inspiration I see and read everyday in the blogosphere. If you click on the image above, it should enlarge enough so that you can print it off and colorize it to your heart's content. If that doesn't work, let me know and I'll post it over on Flickr.

*Please note this is meant for individual use and should not be sold, packaged or used in any commercial way without express written consent of the artist, Laure Ferlita.

Have you ever "misplaced" something and then wondered if it was truly lost because it was nowhere to be found? As in "gone for good?" And it kind of makes you sick at heart to think that, but you've looked everywhere you can think to look, sometimes 4 or 5 times, and it's simply not to be found?

Well, happy day, my "misplaced" item became "found" today!
See that adorable little Winsor and Newton palette?!! That thing has been missing since the great studio remodel back at the holidays! It's an antique that I won on eBay and the ivory color is the original color. I am inordinately fond of this palette for some reason and I was most unhappy to not be able to locate it.

I pleaded with the faeries, the gremlins and the Universe to please return my palette, all to no avail. In a few dark moments, I even wondered if I could possibly have left it somewhere, thrown it out, or just flat out lost it. I did my best not to entertain those thoughts for long, and look! It paid off!!! Oh, my happy heart!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!

Above the palette, you can see my color chart of the paints in this palette. I tend to move from palette to palette (sometimes not by choice!) and I don't always remember the color name or brand. This is my M. Graham palette with a couple of Daniel Smith's thrown in. Now I can finish my strawberry!

One last quick note: For those of you who are interested in the Artful Journaling: Foundations online class, there are 3 spaces left.

P.S. Honey, if you're reading this before you check your voice mail, be sure to hold the phone away from your ear! I was a little excited when I called!!

On Saturday, Chris and I met up with friends to attend the Da Vinci exhibit at our local MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry). I can only say I came away even more.......in awe of the man than I was before. A genius, most certainly, as well as innovative, resourceful and incredibly, insatiably curious about EVERYTHING!

I found myself wondering if he would understand our fascination with him today. I suspect not. I think he would be flattered, but what I glimpsed was more along the lines of just the way the man's mind worked. To figure something out, he sketched, took notes, studied, took more notes, made more sketches. His curiosity knew no boundaries, he gave it full rein. Something that I will allow more of in my life.

I went prepared to sketch with what I think of as necessary tools—pen, pencil, paper, paint, sketchbook, eraser, paintbrush. There were two other "tools" I should have packed as well. Patience and tolerance. Immediately after pulling out my sketchbook a woman approached and said "What are you doing?" She leaned in to see, nearly blocking my view of my subject.

A flurry of responses flew through my mind, but in the end, I settled for a simple, "Sketching." At this, she turned and called her friend over to inform her that I was sketching. Apparently, it wasn't obvious by the pencil and sketchbook in my hands. The friend wanted to know why and what I hoped to accomplish. Again, a number of responses tumbled rapidly through my mind, ranging from downright sarcastic to feigning complete ineptitude and asking what she meant. (Experience, being the wise teacher that it is, has taught me the folly of engaging in this nonsense.)

Before any of this mischief could take hold, I responded with "I'm just hoping a little of the man's genius rubs off on me." Already bored with me, she mumbled, "Me, too," over her shoulder as she went on to the next exhibit. Take that as you will. I choose not to take it at all. At least, she didn't slam my skill level. My interactions with the public (almost) always amuse me, exasperate me, and undoubtably, confound me.

As to sketching in this environment—it was tough. There were a lot of people milling about and really, no place to stand that was out of the way and unobtrusive. Which brought the onlookers. The other thing this brought was close scrutiny from security, to make sure I meant no harm and was merely sketching. I was watched as I moved through the exhibit. No doubt they've had some trouble as there were signs everywhere of what you could and could not do.

Lastly, being with friends, I felt pressured to keep up with them, and therefore, I rushed the sketches that I did. This was totally self-inflicted as they were doing their own thing and did not seem to mind in the least. Still, in the back of my mind I felt a social obligation (also known as courtesy) to keep up. Next time, I will make arrangements to go alone for sketching, and then with friends to enjoy the interaction of the show.

If this exhibit should come to your city, I do recommend attending. It is a fascinating, but all too brief, glimpse into a truly remarkable life. I leave you with one last quote from the genius....

"It's no good, no good!! Abort! Abort!!" I'm sure these words ring a bell if you've watch any type of thriller movie where the reluctant hero has to take the impossible shot, fly through an impossible situation, or otherwise defy all odds, not to mention physics, to save the day.

I heard myself muttering something along the same lines today as I was attempting to speed sketch some flowers. I was working on a couple of sunflower buds that were damaged. I stuck them in a pinot grigio vinegar bottle thinking they'd be a nice arrangement for a few days. Then I had the brilliant idea that I would sketch them. Without drawing them. Turns out thinking was my first mistake. My second was even beginning the sketch.

The poor buds huddled together as fearful of my paint brush as they would have been of a Dixie Chopper (think lean, mean mowing machine or "The Annihilator"). Needless to say, I butchered the little buds. I am not sure what causes my resistance to sketching flowers quickly and without lead. Perhaps it is that I like (too much) to get lost in the details and take my time with them. It seems a shame to rush certain subjects and flowers would be one of them.

However, with all sketches there is usually something to redeem it and I must say the bottle turned out quite well. Not well enough to be shown the light of day, but respectable. So I will have to leave it up to your imagination to envision the poor hapless buds before their butchering.....